Semantic framework for biometric-based access control systems

The variability of biometric data is one of the most significant sources of errors in the application of biometric devices. In some specific-area applications, the problem of errors and the minimization of wrong decisions caused by these errors, can be alleviated by using friendly interfaces between biometric devices, as well as decision making procedure. These interfaces are based on the semantic representation of biometric data. This paper aims to contribute to the genesis of biometric technologies using semantic interpretations of biometric data. It provides the preliminaries of the theoretical concept, including examples for practitioners. This concept has been developed during the design and prototyping of the biometric-based early warning component for the next-generation security access control system. The research work is being conducted in the Biometric Technologies Laboratory of the University of Calgary, and in the Humanoid Robotics Laboratory at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.